Abigail Boatwright’s New Book Your Complete Guide to Arenas Now Available
For every type of riding, good footing is crucial to ensuring the safety of horse and rider, the horse’s longevity, and peak performance ability. Whether you compete in reining at the top levels, or you’re breaking a youngster to ride, you want the ground on which you ride to be consistent, even and suitable for the task. This is much easier said than done, but Abigail Boatwright’s comprehensive book Your Complete Guide to Arenas: How to Build and Maintain an Ideal Riding and Training Space—from the Ground Up aims to address this need. The book just launched from publisher Trafalgar Square Books, available now from trafalgarbooks.com.
Boatwright has a lifetime of experience with horses, competing in a variety of events from team penning to reining, to horsemanship on Texas A&M’s Equestrian Team. She’s been an equine media journalist for 18 years, writing and photographing articles for over a dozen leading Western performance publications such as the Paint Horse Journal, the American Quarter Horse Journal, Western Horseman, The Reiner, and Barrel Horse News. During those years, Boatwright has worked with arena experts to write articles about building and maintaining arenas.
“Every time I would write an article about arenas, I felt there is so much to cover that this topic could be a book,” Boatwright said. “It’s such an important part of riding, and a good arena makes all the difference in keeping horses safe. That’s why I decided to write Your Complete Guide to Equine Arenas.”
Meticulously researched, the book draws from the insights of 14 expert sources, white papers and scientific papers to build a set of guidelines anyone can use to improve their ground at home.
“Knowing what is needed for your arena and how to care for it will make you a better owner, trainer and rider, and I believe will ultimately help your horse have a safer experience as your partner,” Bob Kiser, founder of Kiser Ranch Development, said in the book.
Whether you're starting with an empty field or renovating an existing arena, the expertise Boatwright has gathered will help you make sure the riding and training space you have is the very best it can be: Safe for both horse and rider, functional and correct for your chosen equine activity, and prepared to help rather than hinder the development of your horse's performance.
The book includes nearly 100 full-color photographs and diagrams to illustrate its concepts, as well as hundreds of tips and ideas on how to preserve your horse’s health and longevity through proper arena preparation and care.
Your Complete Guide to Arenas is available now from Trafalgar Square Books for $26.95. trafalgarbooks.com/products/your-complete-guide-to-equine-arenas
Boatwright will be appearing at a select number of locations to sign books and meet with readers this fall. Check out abigailboatwright.com or Facebook @AbigailBoatwrightCommunications and Instagram @abigail.boatwright for more info.
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About Abigail Boatwright Communications
Abigail Boatwright is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer for equine publications including The American Quarter Horse Journal, Paint Horse Journal, CHROME, Barrel Horse News, Western Horseman, Reined Cow Horse News, NRHA Reiner, Horse & Rider, Horse Illustrated and Young Rider. She writes features, training pieces, health articles and profiles, as well as lifestyle pieces. Boatwright also writes compelling copy for a variety of platforms. Her equine photography has graced 25 magazine covers, and her stock library (stock.abigailboatwright.com) houses 1400 equine images. Abigail co-owns The Freelance Remuda, a podcast and resource for professionals in equine media. She is based in Fort Worth, Texas. Abigailboatwright.com
About Trafalgar Square Books
Trafalgar Square Books, a small business based on a farm in rural Vermont, has been publishing books “for the good of the horse” for almost 40 years. Visit us online at TrafalgarBooks.com, and on FB and IG @horseandriderbooks.